took its present form of ‘mystery’, as though so called because the mysteries of the faith were in it set out. {258} We have here, in this bringing of the words by their supposed etymology together, the explanation of the fact that Spenser (_Fairy Queen_, i, 7, 44), Middleton (_Works_, vol. 5, pp. 524, 528, 538), and others employ ‘Tartary’ as equivalent to ‘Tartarus’ or hell. {259} For a full discussion of this matter and fixing of the period at which ‘sinfluot’ became ‘sündflut’, see the _Theol. Stud. u. Krit._ vol. ii, p. 613; and Delitzsch, _Genesis_, 2nd ed. vol. ii, p. 210. {260} [The name of the small grape, originally _raisins de Corauntz_, was transferred to the _ribes_ in the sixteenth century.] {261} Ben Jonson, _The New Inn_, Act i, Sc. i. {262} [On the contrary, it is the modern “Welsh _rarebit_” which has been mistakenly evolved out of the older “Welsh _rabbit_” as I have shown in _Folk-Etymology_, p. 431. Grose has both forms in his _Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue_, 1785.] {263} ‘Leghorn’ is sometimes quoted as an example of this; but erroneously; for, as Admiral Smyth has shown (_The Mediterranean_, p. 409) ‘Livorno’ is itself rather the modern corruption, and ‘Ligorno’ the name found on the earlier charts. {264} Exactly the same happens in other languages; thus ‘armbrust’, a crossbow, _looks_ German enough, and yet has nothing to do with ‘arm’ or ‘brust’, being a contraction of ‘arcubalista’, but a contraction under these influences. As little has ‘abenteuer’ anything to do with ‘abend’ or ‘theuer’, however it may seem to be connected with them, being indeed the Provençal ‘adventura’. And ‘weissagen’ in its earlier forms had nothing in common with ‘sagen’. {265} [So Diez. But Prof. Skeat and Scheler see no reason why it should not be direct from French _refuser_ and Low Latin _refusare_, from _refusus_, rejected.] {266} It is upon this word that De Quincey (_Life and Manners_, p. 70, American Ed.) says excellently well: “It is in fact by such corruptions, by off-sets upon an old stock, arising through ignorance or mispronunciation originally, that every language is frequently enriched; and new modifications of thought, unfolding themselves in the progress of society, generate for themselves concurrently appropriate expressions.... It must not be allowed to weigh against a word once fairly naturalized by all, that originally it crept in upon an abuse or a corruption. Prescription is as strong a ground of legitimation in a case of this nature, as it is in law. And the old axiom is applicable--Fieri non debuit, factum valet. Were it otherwise, languages would be robbed of much of their wealth”. [_Works_, vol. xiv., p. 201.]